Interview with Willans LLP solicitors
Can you introduce yourself and let me and tell me a little bit about your background?
Yes, of course! So, my name is Jenny Hawrot, and I’m a partner and head of employment and business immigration here at Willans. I didn’t actually start my career here…I’m originally from South Wales, where I did all my schooling. I went to university in West London, then moved back to Cardiff for law school, and eventually trained in the South East.
I qualified there and stayed for about three years, but I really wanted to move back west to be closer to friends and family. I joined Willans ten years ago (my ten‑year anniversary was in November just gone). I started as a solicitor, and now I’m partner and head of employment and business immigration.
It’s been fascinating to see how much the firm has evolved in that time. While our core values are the same, it’s quite a different place from when I started (in a good way).
Before I started my legal training, I took a couple of years out to simply enjoy being in my 20s. After that, I went straight into law, qualified into employment, and I’ve been doing it ever since 2012.
Regarding the business, how did it start? And what inspired it?
The firm was founded in 1947 by Alec Willans. he He started out on Clarence Street, right where Boston Tea Party is now, which was the centre of town. He later moved the firm to Imperial Square, which at the time was surprisingly run-down – hard to imagine when you see it today – and Willans has been located here ever since.
As the legal world shifted in the 70s and 80s, the firm merged with several others to move with the times. In the 1990s, we rebranded as Willans.
In 2004, the firm appointed its first female managing partner, Margaret Austin, who steered Willans through the 2007 financial crash, and Bridget Redmond took over as managing partner a couple of years before I joined in 2016.
Willans has always had a strong reputation for its legal services for individuals (for example creating a will and buying and selling houses), but over the last decade (certainly during my time here) we’ve really strengthened our commercial offering. Now we’re genuinely strong on both the B2B and B2C sides, which has been exciting to be part of.
What kind of teams and how many employees work here?
We’re now a team of around 125 people and have eight departments altogether. When I joined ten years ago, there were only about 70 of us. We’ve grown into a full‑service firm, so we help clients with everything except personal injury.
Our private client teams, including wills, trusts & probate and residential property, are incredibly strong and well-respected; people genuinely wait for them because they’re that good. On the commercial side, we have our real estate and agricultural teams, dispute resolution, who’ve just had a brilliant High Court win and of course my employment team, which mainly supports commercial clients and works closely with our corporate team on mergers and acquisitions. Oh, and I can’t forget our family team, who are very much part of that private client offering.
What I love is how closely we work together. Many of our clients need support across different areas, and we collaborate constantly to give them a full, seamless service. It really does feel like one big family!
How do you engage with other businesses locally then, would you say?
We naturally engage with local businesses and individuals because so many of our clients live and work here in Gloucestershire. Our private client work often connects us with people who also run local companies, and through our corporate and commercial teams we end up working with a lot of those businesses too. Many of our clients are based in Cheltenham and wider Gloucestershire, although we also work with both national and international clients. I’d say our core work is definitely rooted in the local community.
Cheltenham and Gloucestershire have so many fantastic and entrepreneurial businesses, from big household names to all the innovative independents. We interact with them every day through our work, but also through our involvement in the community more broadly. We do a lot of charity work and local engagement, so those relationships grow quite naturally. This year, our charity committee have partnered with Cheltenham Open Door who are a fantastic local charity that help vulnerable people in the town.
What are your growth ambitions over the next few years as a business?
We’ve grown enormously, but it’s all been very organic. We’re confident in who we are, in our business model, and in the way we work. Our growth has come naturally because this is a great place to work, we attract excellent people, and we’ve built strong relationships with clients who trust us and keep coming back.
We’re not trying to take over the world; our ambition is to keep doing what we do best which is delivering high‑quality advice with genuinely great client service. Raising awareness of the firm helps, and of course being visible means people can find us more easily, but even then most of our work comes through reputation.
That’s our USP: we offer top-tier expertise, and we’re big enough to handle all kinds of work but we’re still small enough to care.
Clients get quality advice, quick responses, and a personal experience, and that’s the standard we’re committed to growing with.
What three words would you use to sum up the brand?
Approachable
Trustworthy
Capable
About
All law firms offer legal expertise – that’s a given. What makes Willans different from the others is:
Distinctive mix of top-quality people (we have some of the best legal brains around),
Emphasis on continuity & communication (you know who you are dealing with and we keep you updated),
Commitment to exceptional client care (the majority of our work is repeat business from satisfied clients)
They are capable, responsive and do business with integrity – that’s why generations of private and commercial clients have chosen to use us as their trusted advisors.
Opening hours
09:00-17:30 Monday to Friday